''The Hartlewick Horror'' is an adventure published by

FASA FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargaming, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001, after which they closed publishing operations for several years, becoming an IP holding company under the name FASA In ...

in 1985 for '' The Doctor Who Role Playing Game'', itself based on the long-running

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''.

Plot summary

The player characters, usually consisting of one or more

Time Lords The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Time Lords are so named for their command of time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity o ...

and their Companions, are sent to Earth in 1923 by the Celestial Intervention Agency to investigate a large energy field centred on the English village of Hartlewick, where a number of people have recently disappeared at night. The characters will eventually discover an ancient alien imprisoned underground who is using its telepathic powers to force the local villagers and an archaeologist to free it. Pregenerated characters are provided for the

Fourth Doctor The Fourth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Tom Baker. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord from ...

, and his well-known companions Leela,

Sarah Jane Smith Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running BBC Television science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' and two of its spin-offs. Sarah Jane is a dogged investigative journalist who first encounters alien ...

, and Harry Sullivan.

Publication history

''The Hartlewick Horror'', a 40-page book with a cardstock card published by

in 1985, was written by

Ray Winninger Ray Winninger is a game designer who has worked on a number of roleplaying games, including the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. He is the former Executive Producer for the Wizards of the Coast ''Dungeons & Dragons'' studio. Care ...

with interior art by Jane Bigos and Todd Marsh, and cover art by

David Deitrick David R. Deitrick is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Career David Deitrick has had illustrations published in several different science fiction role-playing games. In 2014, Scott Taylor of ''Black Gate (magazine), Black ...

Reception

In the August 1986 edition of the British magazine ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

'' (Issue #80), Barry Bailey reviewed both ''The Hartlewick Horror'' and another ''Doctor Who'' adventure, '' The Legions of Death'', and said of ''The Hartlewick Horror'', "You could be forgiven for thinking it was a scenario for a certain popular rolegame with the initials '' CoC''." Bailey thought the plot "was simple, and designed for less experienced players", but he admitted that those players would "find it very entertaining." He also noted that "players were guided through it, without being too obvious that there was manipulation involved." However, Bailey criticized the American designer for a lack of research, "apparently unaware of the distinctive differences between English and American towns." He concluded that, compared to ''The Legions of Death'', "''The Hartlewick Horror'' is the better of the two scenarios, and should provide a solid one or two sessions' gaming."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartlewick Horror Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1985 The Doctor Who Role Playing Game adventures